On The Revolution
I mention the Revolution a lot. Let me clarify.
The Revolution is not strictly speaking Marxist. It does not seek the establishment of a proletarian-run utopia.
Still, Marx got a few things right. He was pretty close to being spot-on in his analysis of history, which I am going to simplify here:
Every so often, everyone gets together and shoots all the rich people.
Sometimes they follow that up by squabbling among themselves to see who gets to join the next set of rich people, forgetting that they or their descendants will inevitably get shot as well. Other times, they get together and try to set up a marginally more equitable system than the one they just cleaned out.
What we see here is that periodic revolution is inevitable. Show me a society that hasn't experienced one of some kind and I'll punch you in the throat and call you a liar. The United States has had two since it was founded, the Civil War (the North, incidentally, being the revolutionaries) and the Civil Rights Movement (which was somewhat less spectacular with the violence, but we'll count anyway). And WE'RE relatively stable.
So, looking at history, I can say with absolute confidence that the day will come when Americans will all get together and shoot all the rich people again.
The reason that all of this is inevitable should be obvious: the rich and powerful will resist any effort to reduce their rich-and-powerful-ness. They're always going to beat the masses at any legal effort, because they control all things legal. What they decidedly do not control is the guns. You do the math. If I have $50 and three guns (which is actually about the status of my bank account/arsenal at the moment), and Bill Gates has $50 billion but no guns, which instrument am I going to use to go after him and his ilk?
Of course, the argument can be made that he could pay other people to use guns on his behalf, but you'll find that nothing he's paying these people could possibly outstrip what they could gain by turning on him and dividing the loot, at which point THEY will become rich, forget about their guns, and immediately be shot.
The Revolution is not strictly speaking Marxist. It does not seek the establishment of a proletarian-run utopia.
Still, Marx got a few things right. He was pretty close to being spot-on in his analysis of history, which I am going to simplify here:
Every so often, everyone gets together and shoots all the rich people.
Sometimes they follow that up by squabbling among themselves to see who gets to join the next set of rich people, forgetting that they or their descendants will inevitably get shot as well. Other times, they get together and try to set up a marginally more equitable system than the one they just cleaned out.
What we see here is that periodic revolution is inevitable. Show me a society that hasn't experienced one of some kind and I'll punch you in the throat and call you a liar. The United States has had two since it was founded, the Civil War (the North, incidentally, being the revolutionaries) and the Civil Rights Movement (which was somewhat less spectacular with the violence, but we'll count anyway). And WE'RE relatively stable.
So, looking at history, I can say with absolute confidence that the day will come when Americans will all get together and shoot all the rich people again.
The reason that all of this is inevitable should be obvious: the rich and powerful will resist any effort to reduce their rich-and-powerful-ness. They're always going to beat the masses at any legal effort, because they control all things legal. What they decidedly do not control is the guns. You do the math. If I have $50 and three guns (which is actually about the status of my bank account/arsenal at the moment), and Bill Gates has $50 billion but no guns, which instrument am I going to use to go after him and his ilk?
Of course, the argument can be made that he could pay other people to use guns on his behalf, but you'll find that nothing he's paying these people could possibly outstrip what they could gain by turning on him and dividing the loot, at which point THEY will become rich, forget about their guns, and immediately be shot.